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Article
Rethinking Wolfenden: Prostitute-Use, Criminal Law, and Remote Harm
Criminal Law Review (2005)
  • Michelle Madden Dempsey, Villanova University School of Law
Abstract

This article critiques the Wolfenden Committee's conclusion that criminalising prostitute-use is inconsistent with the liberal harm principle. Section one evaluates recent empirical evidence challenging Wolfenden's assumptions regarding prostitution. Section two analyses the use of forced-prostitutes as a direct harm offence of rape. Section three presents a new approach to criminalising the conduct of prostitute-users, and sketches a prima facie case in favour of criminalising solicitation for prostitute-use as an abstract endangerment offence.

Keywords
  • prostitution,
  • harm principle,
  • endangerment,
  • Wolfenden,
  • consent,
  • fair imputation
Disciplines
Publication Date
June, 2005
Citation Information
Michelle Madden Dempsey. "Rethinking Wolfenden: Prostitute-Use, Criminal Law, and Remote Harm" Criminal Law Review (2005)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/michelle_dempsey/6/